Contingent Agencies—Inquiring Into the Emergence of Atmospheres

How do atmospheres—those subtle, impermanent, non-objectified and surrounding yet intimately affective presences—come to be? What forces enable and constrain their appearance, and how do they relate to one another? How to research these complex processes in a non-reductive way?

Contingent Agencies, an artistic research project initiated by Alex Arteaga and Nikolaus Gansterer, explores the dynamic relationship between human and non-human agencies as enabling conditions for the emergence of atmospheres. This cross-disciplinary investigation is conducted through multimodal practices of notation, reflection, showing, and sharing realized in diverse media within different theoretical frameworks such as phenomenology, enactivism, and new materialism.

The present book, complemented by an extensive online archive, features multiple research artifacts – including texts, drawings, photo series, diagrams, sound recordings, and video stills—as an invitation for a wider community to join the inquiry into agencies. A group of internationally renowned authors explores the emergence of atmospheres through diverse perspectives, including art, artistic research, western and non-western philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and quantum physics.

Texts by Alex Arteaga, Karen Barad, Arno Boehler, Emma Cocker, Alexander Damianisch, Gerhard Dirmoser, Mika Elo, Nikolaus Gansterer, Sabina Holzer, Tim Ingold, Paula Kramer, Erin Manning, Dieter Mersch, Hans-Joerg Rheinberger, Leena Rouhiainen, Andreas Spiegl.

Book launch: April 7, 2025, 6:30pm
Nikolaus Gansterer and Alex Arteaga in conversation with authors Arno Boehler, Alexander Damianisch, Gerhard Dirmoser, Sabina Holzer, and Andreas Spiegl.

University of Applied Arts Vienna at the APL Angewandte Performance Laboratory, Georg-Coch-Platz 2 (former Postsparkasse), 1010 Vienna, Austria

About the book
Contingent Agencies—Inquiring Into the Emergence of Atmospheres. Editors: Alex Arteaga and Nikolaus Gansterer. Release: April, 2025. Language: English. Format: 440 pages with more than 130 images and diagrams, paperback, 180mm x 250mm. Graphic Design: Marie Artaker, Alexandra Moellner. Publisher: Hatje Cantz Berlin. ISBN: 978-3-7757-5903-8 (print) / ISBN: 978-3-7757-5964-9 (pdf)

This book is available as an open-access publication and is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Order here. Download here.

For further informations and upcoming book launches in Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki and Porto please visit the project website of Contingent Agencies:
https://contingentagencies.uni-ak.ac.at/

Editors
Alex Arteaga (*1969, Barcelona) is an artist researcher who combines aesthetic, phenomenological, and enactivist research practices through an inquiry into embodiments, environments, and aesthetic thinking. He is currently pursuing his research at the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Nikolaus Gansterer (*1974, Vienna) is an artist who explores the interrelationships between drawing, thinking and acting in his work. He teaches at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and is internationally active with performances, exhibitions and lectures.

Contingent Agencies (Grant-DOI: 10.55776/AR546) is funded by the Program for Arts-based Research (PEEK) of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and hosted by the University of Applied Arts Vienna Austria. The publication is also generously supported by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES), the RD Foundation Vienna, and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.